1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates a process for producing 1,2-epoxy-5,9-cyclododecadiene by bringing 1,5,9-cyclododecatriene into contact with hydrogen peroxide. Not only 1,2-epoxy-5,9-cyclododecadiene can be used as a resin component of a coating composition, an adhesive or the like because of having an active epoxy group and a carbon-carbon unsaturated bond, but also it is an important compound as an intermediate raw material for synthetic fibers or synthetic resins such as polyamide or polyester because it can easily be introduced, after conversion into cyclododecanone, into the corresponding lactam, lactone or dibasic acid in a known manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a process for producing 1,2-epoxy-5,9-cyclododecadiene by bringing 1,5,9-cyclododecatriene into contact with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of an aliphatic carboxylic acid, conventionally known is a process (Japanese Patent Publication JP-B-38-772, Unexamined published Japanese Patent Application JP-A-56-104877) in which formic acid and/or halogenoacetic acid is used in a catalytic amount relative to hydrogen peroxide. As a result of the follow-up test of the above-described invention, the present inventors have found that the process is accompanied with such drawbacks as markedly low selectivity to 1,2-epoxy-5,9-cyclododecadiene based on the consumption amount of hydrogen peroxide and necessity of long hours for completion of the reaction.